Method and apparatus for prioritizing voice over internet protocol signaling messages

摘要

A method and apparatus for enabling prioritization of signaling messages in a communication network are disclosed. For example, the method receives at least one signaling message, and classifies each of the at least one signaling message. The method schedules each of the at least one signaling message for processing, and discards selectively one or more signaling messages that have been scheduled under an overload condition.

主权项

1. A method for discarding a signaling message in a communication network, the method comprising:
receiving, by a processor, the signaling message; classifying, by the processor, the signaling message; scheduling, by the processor, the signaling message for processing; discarding, by the processor, selectively the signaling message that has been scheduled under an overload condition, wherein the discarding comprises:
discarding the signaling message that has been scheduled from a tail of a provisional message queue when the provisional message queue is not empty, when a high priority message or a non-provisional signaling message is newly received and when the signaling message is a provisional signaling message; anddiscarding the signaling message that has been scheduled from a non-provisional message queue when the provisional message queue is empty and the non-provisional message queue is not empty, when a high priority message or a non-provisional signaling message is newly received and when the signaling message is a non-provisional signaling message, wherein the discarding the signaling message that has been scheduled from the non-provisional message queue comprises a time expiration discard method, wherein the time expiration discard method comprises:
discarding the signaling message from a head of the non-provisional message queue when the signaling message is at the head of the non-provisional message queue and when a waiting time of the signaling message at the head of the non-provisional message queue has exceeded a predetermined expiration time threshold; anddiscarding the signaling message from a tail of the non-provisional message queue when the signaling message is at the tail of the non-provisional message queue, when a waiting time of a different signaling message at the head of the non-provisional message queue has not yet exceeded the predetermined expiration time threshold and when the newly received signaling message is a high priority message; discarding a newly received signaling message under the overload condition when the newly received signaling message is a provisional signaling message; and discarding the newly received signaling message under the overload condition when both of the provisional message queue and the non-provisional message queue are empty.